As shared in the Sunday, January 24, 2021, Dharma Talk by Jikoji Guiding Teacher Shoho Michael Newhall, and as it appears in “Traces of Kobun,” available here for download.
Power
The power of meditation and wisdom together is called joriki. Jo is samadhi, and ki is spiritual energy, compassion, and wisdom. Existence, the world of phenomena, is power itself, but each thing doesn’t have power. If you presume a self-authorized power, you shrink existence. If you do not presume power, power can fill existence. Because form is also the process of cessation, power cannot be possessed, but it can be felt. For people who deny the existence of power, there is no power. At this level it is just a concept. In the same way we could deny holiness, and with that tainted concept, there is no holiness. If we begin to feel power, we see that everyone has power, everything has power. Existence is made of power. Life is energy itself. This energy and power is generously dispersed into all things.
Power is experienced when you meditate because your meditation is the action of denial of your personal power. So you become the center of the power, but you do not have power. It is like the experience of bowing, when you really feel your bow. When bowing, you are nothing, you do not have anything; you’re actually nothing, you disappear. You are like dust on the earth. When you stand up, you stand up as a person, a particular existence and you feel everything. At that time you are ready to walk.
Joriki is like a tree standing straight in the winter and making strong rings. That strength is important to feel. We have the same action the tree has; depending on the change of seasons, water, and sunshine, it forms rings. The experience of samadhi, concentration, and meditation makes that ring in human existence. That is the real age of the person.
Existence deepens by recognition. Actually, there is no such existence. Things exist as they are, completely relating to each other, but that is just how we think about things. Existence shows its depths by recognition of itself. The direction that this whole universe is moving is the direction of your deepening zazen. It is not a personal feeling. It is the direction your existence is supposed to go, so it is a natural thing you are doing.